...to expect students and parents to take my subject seriously?

[TeacherAnonymous123]

Issue coming from another thread I posted, so thought I would ask for people's opinions.

I teach Religious Studies at a Catholic Secondary School. As it is my subject, I am clearly biased, but I believe that students learning about other religions and cultures is extremely important for their development and attitude towards the world and other people.

As it is a Catholic school, students must take RS at GCSE. Their first exam in it is tomorrow morning and some of them are still apathetic, telling me that parents have said not to bother trying as it isn't an important subject and it doesn't matter if they fail.

Obviously this leads to a battle in lesson which I cannot win as I do not have support from parents.

So parents - do you think RS is an important and relevant subject? If not, why not?

@Needmorelego Which brings me back to why should the GCSE be compulsory and considered important when that curriculum focuses solely on the school religion and not others and they’ve already had several years of RE education prior to this? I’m not saying RE as a subject is pointless but RE as a compulsory GCSE is.

It is kind of wrong that a catchment school and from what you say the only good school available is a religious school with enforced GCSE in RE. It causes an imbalance from the beginning. Yes, the parents knew it, but it doesn't mean they are enthusiastic about it.

I personally value learning about different philosophical beliefs including different religions and mythologies, but I don't see more value in learning Catholicism by heart than learning Norse mythology or memorising results of the Olympics. Learning about one specific religion on GCSE level sounds very artificial and it is inevitably the first subject to mentally drop for majority of students.

RS does not take up and option space, it is alongside 3 option choices.

That is taking up an option space though - every school I have worked in has four options

we were actually discussing this recently and my husband was very pro R.S as it has such a big impact on law, the judicial system and politics

Most schools near us only have three option choices and take about three hours a week per subject. I'm assuming op's subject might only be one hour a week as she says it doesn't take up an option slot. Like I said before, the school probably puts all the children in for it as an easy way to improve their GCSE points score, as they should know a lot of the content anyway. Similar to putting native Polish speakers in for the Polish GCSE.

I don't understand how parents can have that attitude either OP. Pupils should give all their GCSEs equal attention if they want to maximise their chances of a good University place at 18.

The difference is that wars and communism and colonialism are real. Religion imo is a collection of cults based on stories and not something we should be spending hours teaching to kids.

I don't think there is a place for this subject any longer within the curriculum I'm sorry but that is my belief. I don't think it adds value or is needed

@DevastatedParent I agree. It shouldn't be compulsory for GCSE.
This is knowledge you need to know - but you shouldn't have to be tested in it unless you choose to study it more in-depth.
It should be compulsory the same as PHSE and PE is - but not an exam subject.
(The same applies with PE - if you choose it as a GCSE then yes you should take an exam in it).

@ttcat37 it should come under history then if it's the way you describe.
How can you learn about the Second World War without knowing anything about religion?

I didn’t enjoy it at school. I attended a catholic school and sometimes the debates around emotive topics like abortion and euthanasia were difficult.

I didn’t feel it was important or relevant to what I wanted to study. However I did get an A atGCSE.

at this point in my life I’m very interested in religion and it’s impact in society, I wish we had learned about other religions and not just Catholicism and the bible

Yes, it should, but just as an element to history. So you would say this person believed this and so they did this. You don’t need to go into depths about what people believed to learn about what they actually did.

I think its important its covered in schools if:

• it covers a range of faiths and the syllabus isn't unduly weighted towards one particular religion, for example the one the school follows
• it encourages question & challenge of beliefs as well as respect & tolerance

I don't however think its necessary for it to be routinely examined as a GCSE or A-level subject & if it were imposed by the school (as it was for me) i wouldn't expect my DC to take time away from preparing for other exams to focus on this one.

OP - what proportion of the syllabus you teach focuses on Christian/catholic beliefs

I did Religious Stidies A-level & it was an extremely interesting subject. All subjects are taught for their academic content & tests you not only on your specific knowledge of that subject but also your ability to discuss & reason. Ofcourse it should be respected.

@ttcat37 I don't understand what you mean.
When I did RE at school is was essentially "this is what people who are (whatever) religion believe".
We didn't really go in to depth.
It was mostly factual.
X Religion believes this.
X Religion has these rituals, festivals and events.
(repeat for several different religions and belief cultures)

I'm sorry op because I'm catholic and went to catholic school and was pretty academic but found it hard to take RS seriously. Ours had a Roman Catholic paper and if you've been to church every Sunday for 15 years it's pretty easy to get an A with minimal effort. That said it's important to be respectful to teachers and try your best and I was glad to get a good grade, even if I feel like I wrote the same answer for every bible question. Don't be disheartened though, a family member was an RE teacher and still gets such lovely messages from ex pupils, it's a different sort of subject and time to talk about such different things, make the most of it. You'll never get all the kids and all the parents taking any subject seriously.

I am one of those parents, sorry it makes it hard for you. In our case we didn’t choose a c of e boys school, and even though we appealed that’s where he has spent 5 years, other than the RS element it’s been a decent school. As Math, English, Business etc are more conducive to gaining the career he wants, and his grades still need work, we are 100% not prioritising revision for RS.

I don’t think we need RE lessons- what you were taught could be skimmed down to fit into a bit of PSE.

@ttcat37 pshe isn't a qualification though is it? Although you have a strong feeling that RS isn't a subject you approve of, it does make sense that it can be studied and people go on to study theology etc. it's very different from learning interview skills, people can dedicate their life to learning about religion it's not something you can cover off in an afternoon. If you take just one religion you're talking 2000 years of history! It annoys me that people think that religion is something that it can be good to be ignorant of. When really it quite clearly exists and matters to most of the world's population so people should have a basis understanding and knowledge.

@ttcat37 it was one lesson a week at my secondary (our lessons were 40 minutes). It was hardly dominanting the timetable 😂
(I don't remember how much in primary - a lot of subjects were taught as cross-curricular topics)

In Scotland it's called RMPS - Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies. DS is sitting an exam in it on Friday. It's taught him debating, critical thinking, made him think about big issues and given him a much better understanding of world religions.

We are not a religious family, he is not baptised, we do not go to church.

I absolutely see value in RS and even if I didn't, I would expect my child to try their best in whatever exams the school required.

It doesn’t matter to most of the world. Most people see religion as made up stories that have become politicised. I’d rather my child do politics and history

40 minutes that could have been spent on practical skills that a child benefits from. Ours were an hour, I think once or maybe twice a week.